Some of you may have seen the Today show feature on Alicia Silverstone chewing food and then transferring it to her child. (Video below)

Other than just plain being gross, it’s not good for the child’s teeth!

Evidence has proven that the transmission of saliva from a parent to child, between spouses, etc. can be harmful to their teeth! Parents with active tooth decay can pass the Streptococcus mutans bacteria through their saliva and give their children cavities!

Dentists and other healthcare professionals advise against sharing utensils, kissing your child on the lips, and even blowing on their food.

We’re doing it again! Our third annual oral cancer screening day will be held on Friday, April 13 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Everyone is welcome, and you don’t even need an appointment!

The office of Hudsonville Dental Associates has partnered with The Oral Cancer Foundation in honor of Oral Cancer Awareness Month and will be offering free oral cancer screenings on April 13 to the public. Oral cancer has existed outside the understanding of much of the public, yet 37,000 Americans will be newly diagnosed this year alone. We would like to invite everyone to our office to get a free oral cancer screening in an effort to raise awareness for this silent killer.

These screenings are more important now than ever because oral cancer is on the rise. There are two distinct pathways by which most people come to oral cancer. One is through the use of tobacco and alcohol, a long term historic problem and cause, and the other is through the exposure to the HPV-16 virus, which is now the leading cause of oral cancers in the US. Today, we are seeing young, non-smoking individuals as the fastest growing segment of the oral cancer population. When found early, oral cancers have an 80% survival rate. Unfortunately, the majorities are found as late stage cancers and this accounts for the very high death rate of about 45% at five years from diagnosis. Late stage diagnosis is not occurring because these cancers are hard to discover, it is because of a lack of public awareness and a lack of a national program for opportunistic screenings.

Oral cancer is not a rare disease. It kills one person every hour of every day in the US, and 100 new individuals will be diagnosed each day with oral cancer. These staggering statistics make these free events crucial, as awareness of the disease and its risk factors in the US population is so low. Please don’t miss out on this opportunity for a free oral cancer screening.

Dr. Dykstra was recently part of a select group of 100 dentists and educators at a recent conference on Evidence Based Dentistry held at the American Dental Association Headquarters in Chicago.

Evidence Based Dentistry in summary is choosing the best diagnostic methodologies, clinical treatment options, and dental materials based on the latest and highest level of scientific evidence, not tradition, manufacturers’ recommendations, or the way things always have been done.

This latest relevant evidence is then combined with the dentist’s clinical experience and expertise and the patient’s preferences and needs to achieve the best treatment and outcome for the patient.

The two main objectives achieved were learning how to look at all the historical and present information analytically and disseminating this information to dental colleagues.

EBD is a method to stay up to date on the current science.

The ADA definition: Evidence-based dentistry (EBD) is an approach to oral health care that requires the judicious integration of systematic assessments of clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the patient’s oral and medical condition and history, with the dentist’s clinical expertise and the patient’s treatment needs and preferences.